home sweet home

It's been a long week! We are moved and almost settled into our new home. I absolutely love it! It has so many wonderful things that we've always wanted. I love the fixtures, the flooring, and most importantly, the floorplan. We have plenty of bedrooms and they're all big. There's a downstairs playroom for the kids for while they're little and and upstairs hangout apartment with 2 rooms and a bath for when they're older. I love the yard... a huge deck, beautiful landscaping and fabulous lighting! And then there's the part that sold my dear husband... 3 car garage and separate brick workshop. Really, I don't know how we were surviving without them... they're already packed full!

Another big reason for the move was to get closer into town to cut down on my time in the car. It's wonderful, I feel like I have moved out of the country and into the city! Most places I go take about 5 minutes; it took longer than that just to get out of our old subdivision.

I had been taking some heat from my dad the past couple weeks for the frequent house jumping. Today, when he visited the new house, he conceded that it was way better than our last home... it was obvious, the move was worth it!

Yes, it was worth it, but still really stressful... harder than I remembered... but maybe that's due to the 2 princesses. Jeremy and I have had different priorities this week. I wanted to get things unpacked and back to normal. He couldn't wait to get the high tech wiring and technology in this house fully functioning. After a lengthy stay at Best Buy, followed by an even lengthier receipt, he spent the next two days on the living room floor plugging, unplugging and rearranging wiring until he got it all just right. The need to play different audio on the deck speakers than on the indoor speakers when we were still up to our necks in boxes confused me to say the least. Luckily, we had a friend over to keep me company much of the week. Our attempts to not argue in front of her (although not 100% successful!) definitely saved us from a few extra fights this week. She may have even saved our marriage... it was a chaotic week! Thanks girl! ;)

It's been difficult to pack up our life and move 8 miles down the road, but so worth it! I picked out a very beautiful and very pricey chandelier for over my kitchen island today. I came home without it to think about whether I wanted to fork out that much money for a light when we still need lots of new furniture. Jeremy told me to get the light I really want... because I'll be looking at it for a very long time.

Friends, if you see me put a for sale sign out in my yard again, yank it up and RUN LIKE HELL! I'll thank you later.... moving sucks!

my head is spinning... and we're just getting started

It's been a week since I blogged. A long week, a short week, I don't know, depends on how you look at it.

I have a bad habit of house hunting, always searching for the bigger better roof to raise my family under. After all, we spend a lot of time in our house! Do you ever wonder why Realtors make such a ridiculously huge bankroll when they close a deal? I suspect it's because of women like myself, who want to tour and critique every house for sale in the greater Hattiesburg area, searching for the perfect one for their family. My perfect home would have 4+ bedrooms, 3+ baths, a big hangout room for the girls as they get older, and be MUCH closer to Sacred Heart than our current home, which clocks in at a whopping 35 minutes!

While Jeremy was in Singapore, I had been busy touring homes and sending him links to virtual tours of ones I liked. His response was always the same, "It's a nice house, but why don't you worry about selling our house first, before you get your heart set on something that we may be gone by the time our house sells. Truth is, the housing market is in bad shape, and the average property will sit on the market for 120 days.

..................................................

On Tuesday I fell in love with a house that met and surpassed my criteria for the perfect home for us. I could go on and gush about the details, but I'll spare you and wait until it's final. I immediately ran home and stuck my "for sale by owner" sign in the yard. With the down market, I decided to also invest $400 in a flat fee broker service that listed my home in the MLS and on www.realtor.com. In less than 24 hours I had a showing. 24 more hours and 4 counter offers later, we had a contract. Mandi, if you're reading this, I'm very sorry for rubbing it in, truly.

We now have a contract for the sale of our current home and a contract for the purchase of our soon to be new home. We are scheduled to close on both only 2 weeks from tomorrow and I am scared to death. I need 2 good inspections and a good interest rate. Full service movers would be nice, but I'll be doing the packing myself. My head is spinning and it's not from the Rock and Roux Fair we were at all weekend. I planned to take the girls to Baltimore next week and I cancelled the plane tickets this morning. Please pray for a smooth 2 weeks for us!

*** a quick edit in case my husband reads this... I plan to stay in the new house a very very long time... I really think that this time we might be getting it right! ;)